Xu Boxiong was visiting Los Angeles in his country's bid to enter the G8. He arranged a dinner meeting with U.S. President Harry Barnes and Russian President Vladimir Novartov at the Vanderbilt Museum to discuss the issue. Novartov was absent due to a minor food poisoning. Barnes told Xu that his vote to allow China into the G8 would depend on China improving their human rights record, but Xu simply retorted the policies of the United States.

Later during the dinner, a waiter working for the Monkey Wrench gang, triggered the museum's alarm system, thereby locking Xu and Barnes into dining room in an airlock. The waiter subsequently released a vial of the Cat's Claw virus, infecting both the President and the Premier. Once the crisis was averted, and both leaders received the antidote to the virus, Barnes told Xu that he handled the situation like a man.